Municipal Fiscal Health Indicators for Nova Scotia

Financial Condition Indicators provide a general picture of municipal financial health in Nova Scotia, derived from the Financial Information Return (FIR) and audited financial statements. The dataset includes metrics such as Outstanding Operating Debt, Uncollected Taxes, and Liquidity, calculated and reviewed by the Department of Municipal Affairs (DMA). Columns suggest it is a time series tracking fiscal performance across different region types.

Use Cases

• Assessing municipal liquidity risk using the Liquidity column.
• Evaluating budget accuracy trends using the Total # of Budget Accuracy within + or - 5% column.
• Analyzing debt burden and service costs using Outstanding Operating Debt and Debt Service Cost columns.
• Measuring tax base growth or decline using the 3 Year Change in Tax Base column.
• Comparing fiscal reliance across municipalities using Reliance on Government Transfers and Reliance on Single Business or Institution columns.

Strengths

• Data is derived from official financial documents (Financial Information Return and audited statements).
• Accuracy is reviewed with the municipalities themselves, as stated in the source descriptions.
• Available on multiple platforms (Socrata, Open Canada), indicating established use and distribution.

Limitations

• Row count and dataset size are unknown across all provided sources.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates exist between sources (2026-04-17 vs 2026-01-16).
• Column information is only available from one platform (Socrata); other sources list columns as unknown.

Provenance

Source

Department of Municipal Affairs (DMA), Government of Nova Scotia.

Collection Method

Calculated from the Financial Information Return (FIR) and audited financial statements of Nova Scotia’s municipalities.

Freshness

Last updated date is listed as 2026-04-17 15:27:05.039580 on two platforms, but conflicts with a date of 2026-01-16 on another.

Geography

Municipalities in Nova Scotia, Canada.